


I'm Calling For Personal Reasons

by Ragingstillness



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: #FluffNotFear, Fluff, M/M, Welcome to Nightvale AU, nightvale level strangeness, personal headcanons on nightvale
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-13
Updated: 2016-12-28
Packaged: 2018-08-14 19:21:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8025922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ragingstillness/pseuds/Ragingstillness
Summary: Alec Lightwood and his siblings Isabelle Lightwood and Jace Wayland worked in absolutes, scientific evidence, things that made sense. But when they took up what was supposed to be a short investigation in a small desert town, nothing could prepare them for what they were dealing with. And who.





	1. Chapter 1

    Alec narrowly avoided hitting his head on the overhead bar as the jeep clattered over yet another sand dune, the trailer of equipment rattling over the embankment behind him. His fingers tightened on the wheel and he cursed whoever had decided their next research project was going to take place in a desert. Oh right, that was Jace. His beloved brother, who was inexplicably asleep in the backseat and had been through every dip and swell.  
    Isabelle, his sister, was moisturizing her lips in a mirror she had somehow clamped onto the overhead bar. Alec wished he could do the same; it was crazy hot out there. Not even stripping off all non-essential clothing had helped.  
    Alec sighed and tried to remind himself of why they were out in possibly the middle of nowhere, looking for a town barely anyone knew anything about.  
    It had all started when their former mentor, Professor Jameson, had come crashing into their lab at university, babbling about death and mysterious lights in the sky.  
    They calmed him down as best they could but he wouldn’t stop speaking, as though he was worried he would forget if he didn’t air it all. And he would have been right, barely ten minutes later he became unnaturally calm and couldn’t remember a thing. His babbling had sounded like nothing except for a couple of phrases he repeated several times: “Radio,” “Insanity,” and “Nightvale.”  
    Those words stuck in Alec’s head and one late night, after having finished all the reports his parents had sent him, he googled the last one. For a moment he had thought he was dreaming. There was enough information to fill a manilla folder, even if almost all of it sounded like nonsense.  
    Most were personal accounts of a mysterious town in the middle of a desert where the unthinkable happened. Alec grew tired of the events described, each one more unbelievable than the next.  
    But the mystery of the town intrigued him so he told Jace and Izzy about it. His siblings had been over the moon and had immediately gone behind his back to get a grant for investigating the town. Normally the university would never spend money on a conspiracy but the sheer volume of work on Nightvale led them to make an exception. Alec himself had taken some convincing, mostly by Jace, there may have been ice cream involved, but now here they were, running the dunes on their way to the most recent reported location of Nightvale.  
    They didn’t know much about what the town looked like and the only tip someone had mentioned on knowing you were even close was, oddly enough, “You’ll hear the radio.” So the radio was on, currently tuned to a scratchy music system Alec was amazed they were even getting in the middle of a desert.  
    There was nothing in front of them for as far as Alec could see, just more dunes. Thank goodness he’d been intelligent enough to pack enough water that even if they ended up nowhere, they could make it out of the desert and back to civilization.  
    The jeep rolled over a couple more hills, the whoosh of sand beneath the wheels accompanied by Jace softly snoring and the smacking of Izzy’s lips. Alec remembered them as the last sounds he heard before the world’s laws started to crack around him.  
    The wheels rolled to the top of a particularly high hill, Jace’s head bumped the headrest, Izzy looked up, and then they all felt a jolt, as though they had hit some sort of barrier and for a fraction of a second Alec saw a purple dome appear in front of them.  
    They were silent for a moment, then they heard it. A crackle from the radio. Alec’s hand reached for the volume dial, and they crossed from the world they knew to a world unlike anything they’d known before, encapsulated in a voice, slinking out of the radio.  
    “A friendly desert community where the sun is hot, the moon is beautiful, and mysterious lights pass overhead while we all pretend to sleep.” There was a pause. Alec held his breath.  
    “Welcome, to Nightvale.”  
    Alec’s lips opened, trying to speak, to say something, anything, to his siblings, but he found himself speechless, struck down by the voice. It was lilting and moderate in tone, a confident, clearly masculine voice, but with a slightly teasing note. There was a hint of an accent, something Alec couldn’t place, maybe Indonesian? Put simply, it was the most beautiful sound he’d ever heard, like the voice of God.  
    He would have mentioned it to Jace and Izzy, but Jace beat him to it. “Is that the radio station we’re looking for?”  
    Izzy straightened up. “Alec?”  
    Alec swallowed hard and cleared his throat but his voice still came out scratchy and amazed. “I-I think so.”  
    They moved out of the haze created by the voice reluctantly, turning it down again, and Alec looked up from where he’d been staring. He blinked a couple of times, processing the sight before him. Where there had previously been nothing but endless dunes had rose a town, a haphazard collection of oddly shaped buildings bulging into the sky. Past the town Alec could make out the beginnings of a canyon and faint shapes of other buildings that were kept completely separate from the town main and looked unconnected.  
    They continued driving, letting the buildings grow ever closer when suddenly Izzy leaned out of the window and pointed at something.  
    “Alec, look. Is that what I think it is?” Alec chanced a quick glance away from his driving to see. Izzy’s finger outlined a long wooden structure, half buried in sand, resembling, of all things, a fishing dock. He drove past it, sparing it a raised eyebrow. Jace, on the other hand, marveled at it as they passed, keeping up a steady commentary with Izzy on why it could possibly be there.  
    Finally they were close enough that the buildings, if such structures could even be called that, had finished growing. However, the minute Alec pulled onto a street, it had just melted out of the sand, a couple of police cars came whirring down the street to form a blockade.  
    Men and women got out of the cars, dressed in long, double-breasted purple trench coats with two rows of gold buttons and black balaclavas. They had silver epaulets on one shoulder each, alternating randomly. Over these coats were the usual belts of police officers, but the holsters were larger and long-range sniper rifles hung from each.  
    They didn’t draw their weapons and one of the women strolled up to Alec.  
    “Welcome strangers. Where are you from? And why are you here?” The beginning part was hissed in anger but the two questions were said pleasantly.  
    Alec frowned, his brain trying to wrap itself around how he would have expected a reversal in the order of that.  
    “We are scientists, from Columbia University.” He sighed. “We’re here to study a series of strange phenomena that have been reported taking place in Nightvale.”  
    The woman smiled, with more teeth than Alec would have expected. “If your interests here are purely academic you are welcome. We, the Nightvale Sheriff’s Secret Police, would be happy to take you to city hall so you can share your desires with the whole town.”  
    Alec blanched. Public speaking had never been his forte, around colleagues even, much less a medium sized town’s worth of people. And what was this talk about a secret police? They couldn’t be very secret if they drove around town and carried sniper rifles. He was still wary of those.  
    The officer approached the car. She took hold of the door handle and pulled it open. Alec stared; he was sure the door had been locked.  
    “We have lodgings set up already for guests. We’ll drive your stuff there and you can take a ride in one of our cruisers to city hall.” It didn’t sound like a suggestion.  
    Casting a worried glance at Jace and Izzy, Alec got out of the car. He waved them with him and they dismounted, uncharacteristically quiet. Izzy looked as worried as Alec was but Jace was just so awed by the sights he was speechless.  
    The officer got into Alec’s car and as the others were ushering Alec and his siblings away she called out to him, frowning. “Why is your radio so quiet?”  
    Alec shrugged. “We were enjoying the quiet.”  
    The woman glared at him. “First law of Nightvale: always keep your radio on.”  
    Alec nodded and turned to get into the squad car but not before he heard her scoff, “You can barely hear Magnus.”  
    Alec’s eyes snapped up. “Who’s Magnus?”  
    “Magnus Bane, the Voice of Nightvale.”  
    A beautiful name to match the beautiful voice. Maybe being in this strange town wouldn’t be too bad after all. A part of Alec also rejoiced to hear the male pronoun. He squashed this part with worry over the safety of himself and his siblings. The officers were still carrying guns.  
    The backseat of the squad car was shockingly soft, and furry. Jace relaxed into its fluff quickly, grinning over at Alec.  
    “Pretty nice deal huh?”  
    Alec sighed. “Maybe. Did you see the guns on these guys?”  
    He whispered the last part. Jace’s expression soured and he nodded. Izzy brought one of her fingers up to her mouth, chewing lightly on her nail. That wasn’t a good sign; Alec thought she had kicked that habit years ago. He laid a light hand on her shoulder.  
    “Izzy? Are you ok?”  
    She pursed her lips. “Hand to hand I could handle, even small weapons, but those huge firearms? We’re swiss cheese if we get on these people’s bad sides.”  
    Alec nodded. There wasn’t much to say. Hopefully the officers would be reluctant to shoot strangers just because they were strangers. The voice in Alec’s head sounded desperate.  
    The cruiser pulled out from its where it had skidded to a stop on the road and peeled out down the streets. They were going so fast Alec registered only snippets of the buildings and people they passed. There was a white picket fence whose contents were suspiciously dark in the bright sunlight. Small children milling around, heedless of the cars. And faceless people in hoods and cloaks, passing through the residents, who avoided them but didn’t register their presence.  
    Then finally the cars pulled up in front of a normal looking cream, brick building. That was if you didn’t notice how the edges of the roof were pulled up and out as though a giant hand had punched through the top. The officers let Alec, Jace, and Izzy out into the beating sunlight, then ushered them in to the hall.  
    The inside was also deceptively normal. A podium stood at the end of the room, on a slightly raised stage. There were chairs scattered about the floor. Alec figured the police would straighten the chairs as they walked by but then he noted, with a bit of fear, that the chair legs flattened at the ends so they could be nailed to the floor.  
    One of the officers walked over to a wall television and turned it on. An single dot of white appeared in the center of the blackness then gradually expanded with a creaking noise Alec hoped was just a sound effect. Jace gestured to the TV.  
    “What’s that thing doing?”  
    One of the officers smiled at him. “Now the whole town can see you.”  
    The three scientists flinched. The entire town could see them through that video feed? Alec felt the stress of public speaking multiply tenfold.  
    Then all eyes turned to a door off the side of the stage and a woman emerging from it. She had attractive, caramel-colored skin and brown hair whose perfectly straight ends brushed the tips of her shoulders. She stood in front of them with her hands clasped, looking down her nose at them despite her shorter height. With a single finger she beckoned one of the officers.  
    The man walked forward then fell to one knee before the woman. She reached out a hand to the balaclava on the man’s head. The sunlight from the high windows glinted off the three silver rings on her fingers, playing across the skin of her chest and neck. Alec blinked and then he saw them, endless swirling hoops and patterns of brown tattoo work, just a shade darker than the woman’s skin.  
    The woman gave the officer a command, the tip of her finger still touching his balaclava.  
    “Call in to Magnus, he’ll let everyone know.”  
    The man nodded and stood. “Yes, Madame Mayor.”  
    That explained the woman’s powerful aura. Then she turned her chocolate gaze on the three scientists. She ascertained quickly that Alec was the leader and came up to shake his hand. Her palm was callused but warm. Alec found himself liking her.  
    “Welcome. We’re so happy to see you. It isn’t very often that we get visitors, much less visitors who want to study the town. You are?”  
    Alec realized the woman wanted his name so he gave it, followed by Izzy and Jace at the mayor’s prompting. The mayor smiled and directed them all to the podium, claiming the audience would show up soon, before disappearing into a side door.  
And show up they did. People began to stream through the doors just as Alec was getting comfortable behind the podium and Izzy and Jace had found seats they could set next to him on stage. Ones that weren’t nailed down.  
    Some of the people took seats in the nailed down chairs, leaving the floor between them empty. The ones without chairs pressed back against the wall, giving those in the chairs plenty of room.  
    When it seemed everyone had squeezed into city hall that could, Alec stepped up to the microphone and cleared his throat.  
    “H-hello. My name is Alec Lightwood, this is my sister Isabelle Lightwood and my brother Jace Wayland.”  
    He paused. Generally an audience would frown in confusion when he mentioned how Jace had a different last name than them. But the people of Nightvale hadn’t even flinched, hanging on his every word. He continued.  
    “We are scientists from Columbia University.” He cleared his throat and took a moment to meet the eyes of several residents, hoping to get a positive reaction to his next statement. “According to our findings, you are the most scientifically interesting community in America.”  
    Several people began whooping and clapping. Alec smiled. This crowd didn’t make him feel as awkward as he generally did. If Alec had to assign a word to the feeling in the room, it would be curiosity. However, it was not the curiosity of an adult, but that of a child: without prejudices or judgment.  
    “We are here to study several instances of, um, unusual phenomena reported to have occurred here, but don’t worry, we’ll do our best to keep out of your way. Thank you so much for your permission and hospitality.”  
    He inclined his head to the crowd, most of who got to their feet and began thunderously applauding as he walked back to his spot with his siblings. The mayor came on afterward, spelling out the circumstances in which the visitors were staying and that if any citizen had a scientific question that needed answering, they could just call upon them at the guest residence.  
    A squad car ride later saw Alec, Izzy, and Jace exploring the house/lab they’d been given, a three story blue building with smooth walls and that was surprisingly large on the inside for how it looked on the outside. It was even right next to a pizza place for the scientists’ convenience. Or not. One of the officers had mentioned that it was town law to eat pizza once a week. The phrasing would have made Alec question it but the tone left him with doubts about whether the officer could be serious.  
    Alec was just setting the last of the scientific equipment from the trailer onto a lab table when he heard the voice of the radio, coming from a panel in the wall. He grinned to himself and turned it up.  
    “A new man came into town today. Who is he? What does he want from us? Why his perfect and beautiful haircut? Why his perfect and beautiful coat?”  
    Alec tilted his head. Could the University have sent a second team? He shook away the thought. His parents were well-respected pillars of the scientific community and recently even he and his siblings had begun to warrant the attention of some high ranking aficionados. Their three person team would be more than enough for what was seeming to thus far be just a rather odd town with a rather odd lifestyle but nothing scientifically inaccurate.  
    The radio had continued during Alec’s stream of thought but he ignored it, sorting the equipment lazily into piles of what would need to be installed and what could be set out on the tables to assist in research.  
    “…-Alexander,” Alec straightened up. The radio host’s voice grew wistful. “…-called a town meeting. He has a square jaw and teeth like a military cemetery. His hair is perfect, and we all hate and despair and love that perfect hair in equal measure.”  
    Alec flushed. It made sense the town radio would report on them but on him in particular, and on his hair? Not to mention the dreamy tone the statement was given in, coming from a voice that already sounded like velvet and bubbles. The report continued.  
    “Alexander told us that we are, by far, the most scientifically interesting community in the US, and he had come to study just what is going around here. He grinned, and everything about him was perfect, and I fell in love instantly.”  
    Alec dropped a stack of papers and measuring tools. His blood thudded in his ears. He couldn’t have heard right. An image popped into his head of a pair of soft lips, wrapping around the syllables of his full name and slipping off the edge of the word love, floating into a microphone. He shivered.  
    He’d dated sparsely in the past, almost getting brave enough to label the relationships as love but had never really reached the point where it felt appropriate. He used to enjoy imagining how hearing it would make him feel, the way his heart would soar and how a rush of warmth would tingle across his skin. And while the logical part of his brain knew it was preposterous to place any value on a declaration made by an unseen man who he hadn’t even met, there was something in the wording that brought him all of the sensations he’d imagined and more.  
    If he had been asked it would have been nearly impossible to describe, a kind of reckless falling, promised kisses before dates, and confident hands that knew how to find his when he needed them. Guiltily Alec allowed the feeling for a couple moments, not bothering to bend down and pick up the papers. Then the steel door slammed shut on his emotions and he began to clean up what he had dropped, sighing at his own pathetic hope.  
    Nevertheless, when Jace came in to help with the unloading his first teasing comment was to ask why Alec was so red. Alec brushed him off but the moment Jace turned away he glanced over at a wall mirror. Color was high in his cheeks and the tips of his ears glowed just slightly.  
    Unable to bear his own reflection, Alec turned away from the mirror and back to the unloading, lulled by the low tones of the radio, permeating and enveloping the room. He closed up the new lab for the night, Jace and Izzy having long since turned in for the night after calling their parents to assure them they were fine. His fingers lighted on the tip of the light switch. He prepared to flip it off.  
    The radio crackled and he turned to look at the dials on the wall. The voice emanated out, continuing its report into the night and for all of its beauty and more, Alec couldn’t bring himself to consider shutting it off.

 


	2. Chapter Two

    Alec woke entirely too excited for his first day in a strange town. Yet maybe it was the strange town itself, and all of its exciting strangeness, that induced the feeling in him.   
    He cooked breakfast for Izzy and Jace with the food he’d brought, lacking the time to run to any local grocery store before he passed out last night. He had turned the radio up to an embarrassingly loud volume in his room. He didn’t hear the end of the broadcast; lulled to sleep by that gorgeous voice whose attractiveness he still couldn’t understand.  
     Alec’s siblings didn’t say much until they got some coffee in them. Alec was half-convinced Jace didn’t even register where he was until the rush hit.   
     Once the dishes had been washed and put away, _precisely_ when they had been washed and put away, a crisp knock sounded on their door. Alec answered, and had to look down to see the woman standing there. She had an abundance of white hair tied into a neat ponytail at the back of her head and her face was creased with laugh lines, yet her attitude was that of a woman years younger. She met Alec’s gaze through half moon glasses and held out her hand.   
    “Hello dear, my name is Josie. It’s very nice to meet you.”   
    Alec shook her hand, and as he did felt several large rushes of air pass him, as though something large had just entered the house. He suppressed his shiver and ignored it. His hand parted from Josie’s and fell to his side.   
    “What can we do for you ma’am?”   
    “Oh please, call me Josie, everyone does.”   
    “Alright.”   
    “Well Mr. Scientist, I’m here to give you a suggestion of something scientific you may want to look at.”   
    Jace came up to the door and leaned on the frame. He shot Josie an affectionate smile.   
    “We are always interested in science-y things.”   
    Josie smiled back. She beckoned through the doorway at Izzy, where she was finishing off the piece of toast in her hand.   
    “Come over here darling, you may want to hear this as well.”   
    Izzy got up obligingly.   
    “Well, dears, as you may or may not know, the City Council has recently allocated money to those most devious of private contractors to build a new development in Desert Creek.”   
    Alec frowned, both at the capitalization inherent in her pronunciation of “City Council” and these supposedly devious contractors. Maybe it was a political thing. Josie continued.   
    “It’s right by the elementary school, so we all were hoping the young families would move there. But the family in the seventh house from the left seems to be having trouble getting into their house. They’re a lovely couple, and I’m sure they’d be so very pleased if the town Scientists would take a look at it for them.”   
    Alec’s frown deepened. Having heard it with the City Council, it was only more unnerving to notice the ease with which Josie capitalized them as _The_ Scientists. Nevertheless he nodded.   
    “Sure. You said it was right by the elementary school?”   
    Josie nodded, and launched into a long and complicated explanation of how to get there, containing several ominous sounding landmarks. Jace took it all down on a small notepad. Alec parted from Josie’s company happy, and one basket of orange apples richer. Orange apples. If not for the promise to help this young couple, he’d have holed up in the lab for the rest of the day, studying the fruits.   
    Alec packed up a couple of basic sensory instruments and got into the car. Izzy teased him about it, logically assuming the couple’s problem was nothing a Geiger counter could help with. Alec took it good-naturedly.   
    They drove down Desert Creek towards the seventh house from the left, and found a few people standing out on the lawn waiting for them. Two of them introduced themselves as the nice couple Josie had been talking about while the other one was a young man, about high school age, with a purple baseball cap turned backwards on his head and a Sony Walkman in his hand.   
    He held it out when he approached Alec, the top of the compartment open and the CD still. The teen shoved the silent device in Alec’s face, and with the nervous air of anyone trying something for the first time, asked, “What are you Scientists doing here?”   
    Alec was sure he was again hearing a capital, and wasn’t sure if he liked it. He leaned towards the kid.   
    “We’re investigating the house here. A kind woman named Josie told us the couple that owns the house was having difficulty opening it.”   
    He summarized the information neatly, pleased his response didn’t have to be too long. Then he almost choked on his own spit as he looked down and noticed that as he spoke the CD had begun spinning, of its own accord.   
    The boy was in clear sight of it as well but wasn’t acting as though anything out of the ordinary had taken place. He pulled the Walkman away from Alec and inclined his head towards the house, letting Alec get back to his work.   
    Alec joined Izzy and Jace where they were standing on the lawn, looking at the house. Izzy pulled his arm so he would stand in the same spot she had just occupied.   
    “Look from here, Alec. Doesn’t it look kind of…weird?”   
    Alec had a sudden premonition that he’d hear and think this sentence quite often the longer he stayed in this town. He turned his attention to the house and indeed, it did look kind of…weird. From most angles it looked just like the rest of the houses around it, the same sand-colored walls and peaked white roof, with a red-rimmed circular window on the second story. But when Alec let his attention wander a little, yet kept the house in his field of vision, it suddenly faded a bit. Izzy spoke up from next to him.   
    “It looks kind of like it isn’t there.”   
    Alec nodded. That was exactly how he would have described the phenomenon. Scientific terms failed him.   
    For the heck of it he picked up a rock off the ground and threw it at the house. He didn’t know what he was expecting, maybe either of two alternatives, so he was equally elated and disappointed to see the rock sail right through the house, indeed, as though it wasn’t there. Jace gasped.   
    “What the hell?”   
    Alec shrugged, at a loss.   
    “It just sailed right through.”   
    He noticed with a vague sense of alarm how fascinated his own voice sounded. Jace grinned, the same curiosity kindling in his blood.   
    “Let’s throw more things through it.”   
    The high school kid from before called out to them.   
    “What are you doing now?”   
    “Running some tests,” Alec shot back.   
    He met Jace’s gaze, wearing a matching grin. Izzy just sighed.   
    “Whoever decided to put you two in the same research department was clearly a little off their rockers. Fine. I’ll prep for field work and find some more rocks for you to throw.”   
    “I’ll help,” Alec interjected.   
    Jace called out to him.   
    “Come on man, we were going to throw things at it together.”   
    Alec threw him a smile over his shoulder.   
    “We will, just get started without me.”   
    Jace shrugged and without further ado picked up a couple more rocks. Izzy set out a large blue tarp and their lunches for the day, including the pieces of her equipment Alec had brought. Alec took out his own materials, setting them with the utmost care on the tarp. Izzy giggled.   
    “Do you need a moment alone with your gear?”   
    Alec smirked then ran to join Jace, who was now shooting rocks through different features of the house with disturbing accuracy. With Izzy’s help they threw rocks, raisins, water, and slices of cheese at the house; they had mismatched lunches. Then they all spent five minutes daring each other to go touch the house, growing in passion but also unwillingness to touch the house with each shout.   
    They measured possible illusions around the house, projection machinery, and seismic readings, just for the heck of it. But it was the last readings that had Alec scrambling to his feet. They were off the charts, registering several 9.5 earthquakes in the immediate vicinity and all through Nightvale.   
    He thrust the monitor into Jace’s hands.   
    “What is going on?”   
    Jace shook his head, just as confused as Alec was. Izzy had been looking over Alec’s shoulder when the readings popped up and she took the counter now from Jace’s hands and smacked it with the flat of her hand. The readings didn’t change.   
    They laid the device down on the tarp and stripped it down, inspecting the workings. Yet every piece was in perfect order and they repaired it perfectly only to face the exact same readings.   
    Alec rushed over to the teenager.   
    “You need to evacuate this town now!”   
    The kid raised an eyebrow.   
    “Why?”   
    “What do you mean why? There is a whole wave of-of earth-shattering earthquakes hitting this town right now, you need to get everyone out before the damage gets noticeable.”   
    The teen shrugged.   
    “If you want to evacuate the town you should probably tell Magnus. He can let everyone know.”   
    And even in the face of imminent death Alec still felt a stir of apprehension at meeting the owner of the voice that had so publicly and honestly declared its love for him. But, as he reminded himself, he had a responsibility as a scientist, and an entire town to save.   
    “Where is the radio station?”   
    The boy pointed back the way they came and rattled off a series of ridiculous instructions with equally ominous landmarks that Alec was sure only adrenaline was allowing him to remember.   
    Just as he was sliding into the driver’s seat the boy with the strange Walkman called out, “Make sure you turn on your radio so you don’t interrupt the broadcast.”   
    Alec was tempted to yell back, “Screw the broadcast you all might die in a couple of minutes,” but he suspected the boy wouldn’t mind or care.   
    Instead he sped down the streets, taking turns with a violent urgency, and ignoring stop signs.   
    He did turn the radio on, and with only a fraction of his concentration managed to hear Magnus’ beautiful voice report, “Alexander and his team of scientists warn that one of the houses in the new development of Desert Creek, out back of the old elementary school, doesn't actually exist. It seems like it exists, explained Alexander and his perfect hair, like, it's just right there when you look at it.”   
    Magnus did change his voice a little to indicate he was quoting Alec directly.   
    “And it's between two identical houses, so it would make more sense for it to be there than not. But, he says, they have done experiments, and the house is definitely not there.”   
    Jace snorted from the backseat.   
    “This guy really likes your bed hair Alec.”   
    Alec just flushed and tried to concentrate on not hitting any children.   
    Magnus’ voice continued.   
    “This little tidbit of news was retrieved by our intern Jacob. I hope he’ll make it back in one piece so I can thank him. But just in case he doesn’t, I would like to apologize to Jacob’s family and assure them that the reporting work he did was vital to our station and he will be missed.”   
    Alec almost laughed. Izzy leaned forward as far as her seatbelt would allow.   
    “He sounds serious.”   
    Alec glanced over at her for a moment.   
    “I mean, if their police force carries sniper rifles, maybe they have a high crime rate or something?”   
    Alec shrugged.   
    “I hope not. The reports didn’t say anything about it.”   
    Jace snorted.   
    “You mean the conspiracy theories published by people who have supposedly been here before?”   
    Alec didn’t dignify that with an answer, he was too busy swerving in and out of traffic. The children standing near the street didn’t even look up as he careened past, nor tried to get out of the way.   
    A couple of minutes later Alec skidded up to another building. It was a dark turquoise two-story with slightly darker shades on the roof and decals. A single glass door with a push bar jutted out from the rest of the building. Over the entrance was a plaque, reading: Nightvale Community Radio.   
    Alec vaulted out of the car with the seismometer, Jace and Izzy in tow. He flung the door open and started down a hallway. The darkness was what he first noticed, creeping over the walls of the hall and constantly shifting. There was a strong scent of sandalwood and purple lights placed in invisible alcoves that cast shafts of illumination over the scene. Magnus’ voice sounded throughout the entire building, magnified by equally invisible speakers.   
    The hall stretched down for quite a distance. A few meters in there was a large sitting room with what looked like a kitchenette on the left. The end of the hall was utterly dark but Alec thought he could make out another glass door. Before that, on the right, there was a stretched out trapezoid of yellow light, emanating from under a heavier door with a sign over it lit up red with the words, “On Air.” Alec tripped towards that door.   
    As he was about to grasp the handle Magnus’ voice cut off and some music began playing. Alec yanked the door open and fell inside.   
    The studio itself was set up as one would expect, with a desk for the broadcaster, a black swivel chair, and a couple of rosewood cabinets covered in stacks of paper. The desk was barely visible beneath scattered papers and an enormous switchboard, connected by wires to another large switchboard at standing height, hanging from the ceiling. That part of the studio bore a shocking resemblance to a plane cockpit.   
    From the way the chair was situated, Alec could see nothing but a coif of dark hair and long legs stretched out on the desk in black velvet jeans and jet black loafers. At the sound of the door opening Magnus kicked off the desk and spun around, facing Alec. All fear about deadly earthquakes drained from Alec’s mind.   
    He could admit he’d imagined what the radio host would look like, but he had never expected what he saw before him now. Magnus was wearing a simple grey vest over a violet tie, the sleeves of the white undershirt rolled up to his elbows, exposing soft swathes of dark topaz whose gold undertones shone under the yellow light of the room. His nails were the same purple as his tie and also matched the simple studs set into his ears and the long arrow-shaped ear cuff. His eyes were a deep chestnut that looked all too wise against the glow of his skin. And those expressive eyes were riveted on Alec, looking him up and down as though they had never seen anything like him.   
    With a distracted clatter Magnus tripped out of the chair and reached out a hand to Alec, the other running through his hair, sweeping across the undercut, the black silk-like strands slipping through his fingers all the way to the gold ends. Alec took it, shaking once, and noting with alarm how hot his face got at the simple contact.   
    “H-Hi, I’m Alec Lightwood.”   
    “Yes, I know. Our new Scientist.”   
    The jaunty lift Magnus lent the capital made it more feel more comfortable to Alec than all of those who’d said it that day. Alec fidgeted with the seismograph in his hands.   
    “I, uh, I needed to let you know about something we found while out in the field.”   
    He cleared his throat and found his voice.   
    “You’re all in grave danger!”   
    He expected Magnus to start but instead the man looked overjoyed.   
    “What kind of danger, perfect Alexander?”   
    Alec flushed.   
    “Earthquakes,” he blurted out. “Earthquakes danger. Uh, there are several dangerous earthquakes happening in this town right now. You have to evacuate!”   
    Magnus tilted his head to the side, looking like an adorable, unfairly attractive, kitten.   
    “But no one has felt anything.”   
    Alec nodded and held out the seismograph. Magnus regarded it like a foreign dish.   
    “See, right there, it says the earthquakes are happening, despite what we feel. We took it apart and put it back together multiple times but it still says the same thing.”   
    Magnus took the machine in his hands and turned it over several times. He had clearly never seen anything like it before. Then he handed it back to Alec.   
    “The vague yet menacing government agency may have jammed your device. That happens sometimes.”   
    Alec raised an eyebrow.   
    “The what?”   
    Magnus twisted his hands behind his back and rocked on his heels.   
    “The vague yet menacing government agency that overlooks all of our lovely little desert community.”   
    Alec continued to look confused so Magnus elaborated.   
    “They do all sorts or services. Flying helicopters, monitoring radical citizens, and occasionally donating to the School Board.”   
    He smiled and despite how increasingly creepy the words had been, Alec felt his heart skip a beat.   
    “So, let me get this straight, there is a…governing force that controls this town?”   
    Magnus scoffed and clapped Alec all too briefly on the shoulder.   
    “No **one** force has control over Nightvale. We are our own people. Or at least, we may be.”   
    Alec didn’t respond. A sudden beeping came out of his other lab coat pocket and he pulled out the Geiger counter, settling the seismograph under his arm. He blinked. The readings on the other device were equally insane as those earthquakes he had found earlier, which he was now rationalizing as signal fuzzing by whatever strange agency Magnus had mentioned.   
    He wondered vaguely if his team was trespassing on a secret government experimental facility. It would certainly explain a lot of the strange things he’d seen around Nightvale.   
    Alec raised the Geiger counter. To his alarm, it only began to make louder sounds the closer it got to Magnus. Alec took a step forward, forgetting his embarrassment in his pursuit of a scientific explanation. Magnus squinted, cross-eyed, at the Geiger counter.   
    “What is this one, Alexander?”   
    Well that confident attitude hadn’t lasted long. Alec was right back with his priorities reversed, worry over potentially deadly radiation levels taking second to the beautiful way Magnus sounded out his full name.   
    “It measures radioactive activity. And I am getting a bit concerned, might that agency you mentioned earlier be jamming this as well? Do they jam all devices?”   
    He hoped against hope Magnus would say yes.   
    “I’m not sure. Who knows with them?”   
    Magnus laughed and Alec mentally smacked himself.   
    He moved past Magnus, waving the device over the booth. Magnus followed, breathing over his shoulder. The beeping got worse as Alec approached the switchboard then went absolutely crazy when he put it near the microphone. Alec swore under his breath.   
    “Magnus,” he breathed. “You should probably not be in here.”   
    Magnus came around to stand next to him, leaning on his swivel chair. He was still smiling.   
    “Why not, dear Scientist?”   
    “Because any normal person would be dead from this level of radiation. You have to get to a hospital and be quarantined, immediately.”   
    Magnus grimaced. “I personally don’t trust hospitals. You come in with one problem, something simple like EarBats, and who knows what you come out with?!”   
    He threw up his hands.   
    “But you really have to-”   
    Magnus was suddenly closer, seeming to not have taken a step so much as glided across the floor. He held up a finger, just resting on the gasp of air that swept Alec’s lips.   
    “I’ve been doing this job for years and never had any problems. It’s as perfectly safe as any other public servant’s work.”   
    He paused. Alec dared to breathe. Magnus’, voice, when it came, was deeper than usual, sounding more like the powerful radio personality he was.   
    “And, Alexander…none of us are _normal_ people.”   
    Alec knew a dismissal when he heard one, but as dismissals went it was fair. Magnus was most assuredly unafraid of anything that happened in Nightvale and confident in its citizens’ ability to cope. And he was on the clock, with a job to get to.   
    As Alec let the door close behind him he heard the roll of Magnus’ chair, the click that indicated the music was off, and then that gorgeous voice was back to spread its influence throughout the strange town of Nightvale again. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author’s note: Hey Hey Hey friends, I’m back with another chapter of this odd yet fitting crossover. I hope you enjoy it, the response to my first chapter was amazing. Thank you all for sticking with me, please feel free to R&R or leave a comment or kudo. You’re all beautiful angels. 
> 
> I hope this makes you feel a little better about the election. For the next, I don’t really know how long, I am going to try and publish happy chapters. #fluffnotfear. Stay safe and happy dears.

**Author's Note:**

> I'd love to know what you all think of this. I'm still a newish writer, definitely to the Shadowhunters fandom, and not super confident in my writing style. I love the books, the show, the movie, and Welcome to Nightvale. I'm going to try and make the story descriptive enough that you don't have to listen to WTNV to understand, but you should, because WTNV is awesome. Thanks for reading! :)


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